And They Could Never Tear Us Apart
by ardj18
Summary: When the timeline changes, and Luther takes a little longer to find all his moon research, Allison, Klaus, and Diego search for Vanya together and end up saving the world.


**A/N:** I wanted to try my hand at a fix-it because there are so many ways the apocalypse could have been prevented. This was a divergence point I hadn't seen explored much, so I thought I'd give it a go.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Diego doesn't get arrested in this story because I don't believe they had enough evidence or reason to suspect him. The only place they would have found his fingerprints was on Patch, and since everyone knew they were close, I feel like that could have been easily explained and wouldn't necessarily put him at the crime scene since they could have been from earlier that day. So just pretend that his conversation with Beaman about him being a suspect didn't happen.

* * *

Diego hovered in the doorway, watching Mom tend to Five's wound. She'd assured them that Five would be fine, just needed some rest, but seeing him so still and vulnerable, looking so much like an actual thirteen year old-well, Diego couldn't help but worry. Allison was on the phone in the hallway, desperately trying to get hold of Vanya, and Diego was pretty sure he'd heard Luther rummaging around in Dad's office when they came in, probably still going through his research from the moon. He had no idea where Klaus was, but hopefully still somewhere in the house.

They needed to figure out what to do next. Best case scenario, Allison gets hold of Vanya and they get her to the house and away from this Harold guy, who is clearly some kind of psycho. Worst case scenario, Vanya is with Harold somewhere, in danger. Diego's fingers twitched towards his knives. Sure, he was still kind of mad about Vanya spilling all of their dirty, traumatic secrets to the world, but she was his little sister and he wasn't about to let some dickhead hurt her to get to them, or whatever the fuck his plan was. God, he wanted to stab someone.

A loud thud sounded from downstairs, along with a strangled cry. Immediately, Diego's thoughts went back to the attack on the Academy, when those two psychopaths had shot up the house, and kidnapped Klaus, and he'd killed Mom, and-

The noise. He should investigate that.

Diego glanced briefly back at Mom and Five-Mom smiled at him comfortingly, and wasn't that just a punch in the gut too, after what he did-and then took off towards the noise. It sounded like it was coming from the living room. Diego stepped through the doorway and saw red.

Luther was holding Klaus against the wall by his throat, Klaus scrabbling at Luther's hand and begging to be let go.

Diego let a knife fly. It sliced Luther's arm, causing him to drop Klaus. Immediately, Diego was up in Luther's face, shouting. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he demanded, making sure his body was between Luther and Klaus. He could hear Klaus gasping for breath and shuffling around on the floor behind him.

"He needs to conjure Dad," Luther slurred, and holy shit, was Luther drunk? "Dad needs to answer to me for what he did." Oh great, Luther was finally having a revelation about Dad at the _worst possible time_. "He sent me to the moon for nothing! I sacrificed everything-"

Diego cut him off. "And why the fuck would that give you the right to _choke_ our b-brother?" He jabbed at Luther's chest with his good hand. There were _rules_, dammit, unspoken but still there. Had been since they were kids. Luther could attack Diego all he wanted, but not their little-for all intents and purposes-siblings. Not with his super strength. Not Ben, not Vanya, and definitely not Klaus. "Sure, that sucks, but Dad's got a hell of a lot more than just that to answer for, and _n-none of that is Klaus's fault._ So don't you even fucking think about t-touching him again."

Luther snarled and lurched forward, but Diego shoved him back and stabbed a knife through his coat sleeve, pinning Luther to the bar. It wouldn't hold him for long, but it seemed to shock him even through his drunken stupor. Luther should just be glad he hadn't stabbed it through his hand. Diego turned back to Klaus, who was still on the floor, holding his throat and staring at the scene with wide eyes.

"You okay?"

Klaus nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

His limbs were trembling but Diego was pretty sure it had nothing to do with Luther and everything to do with what appeared to be withdrawal. Well, shit.

Diego reached out and hauled Klaus to his feet. A quick once over didn't reveal any other obvious injuries, but his throat was still red from the attack. Over Klaus's shoulder, Diego saw Allison enter the room. Her eyes swept over the scene with obvious confusion.

"Okay great," Diego said to Klaus. "You're coming with us." Taking Klaus on a mission that could potentially involve fighting might not be the best idea if he was going through withdrawal, but there was no way in hell Diego was leaving Klaus here with Luther after that little scene. "Luther, you stay here. Mope, drink, whatever. Keep an eye on Five, he's injured." Surely even Luther wouldn't decide to go choke Five while he was unconscious or something else monumentally stupid.

With that, Diego shepherded Klaus and Allison out into the foyer before Luther could protest. "Anything?" he asked Allison.

She shook her head. "There's no answer at Vanya's place. And the receptionist at her music school said she was a no-show for her lessons today."

Diego frowned, his grip tightening on Klaus's shoulder as he moved them towards the door. Allison followed. "Are you both okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine," Klaus said in faux-cheerful voice. "Just a little misunderstanding with the big guy, but it's all sorted out, so I think I'll just head back up to my room."

Diego stopped him. "No. I'm not leaving you here with him while he's like this." He saw Allison frown and turned to her. "Luther's drunk and pissed at Dad and decided choking Klaus was the way to deal with things."

Allison opened her mouth-probably to protest that Luther wouldn't do that-but Diego cut her off before she could say anything. "We don't have enough time to argue, we gotta go."

This time Allison did protest. "I don't know, Diego. Five is still unconscious. We need him."

"We can do this ourselves."

"We did that already, remember? We all ended up dead." She slid her gaze over to Klaus before looking away and sighing. "I don't know . . . I'm just thinking maybe I should go back and see Claire before-"

"You can't run away from this, Allison." Diego let go of Klaus's shoulder and reached out to touch Allison's arm. "That's what started this whole mess in the first place." She still didn't seem convinced. Diego sighed. "Luther was right." He glanced at Klaus and quickly added, "This morning." Not whatever that had been in the living room.

Allison raised her eyebrows, nearly doing a double take. "I didn't think I would ever hear you say those words."

Honestly, neither had he. They certainly left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Yeah, well . . . we gotta stick together."

A pause. Then Allison nodded slightly. "Where do we start?"

Klaus, who had been shockingly quiet as he watched the exchange like a tennis match, finally piped up. "Uh yeah, better question: what's happening?"

"That dude Vanya brought around earlier is actually Harold Jenkins and he has a murder shrine of the Umbrella Academy in his attic. And we're pretty sure he's got Vanya." That about summed it up, Diego figured.

Klaus took a moment to process that. "You know, this seems like a lot of pressure for the _very_ recently sober me, so I'm just gonna sit this one out."

"You're coming."

Klaus paused as if listening to something, eyes focused on the space next to Diego. Suddenly he hissed. "Fine!" He rubbed his forehead. "Being sober sucks."

Satisfied that Klaus was on board, Diego turned back to Allison. "There's no other addresses in the file, but there is another relation listed. Jenkins' grandmother. She lived near Jackpine Road."

"You think he took her there?"

"It's a good enough place to start."

* * *

Klaus was not having a good day. Withdrawal fucking _sucked_.

Plus, you know, he'd gotten choked by his own freakishly strong brother who was apparently just now coming to the conclusion the rest of them had reached decades ago that dear old Dad was an abusive bastard, and then he'd gotten roped into hunting down a psycho to save his sister by both Diego and Ben's stupidly effective guilt trip, so he was now going through withdrawal in the backseat of a car speeding down the highway at well above the speed limit. Yeah, his day was going _swell_.

God he wanted some drugs. Or a drink.

"You okay, man?" Diego asked, turning around to face Klaus. Allison was driving, since Diego still had an injured arm and Klaus was . . . well, there were a lot of reasons Klaus wasn't driving.

"Peachy," Klaus groaned. Ben made a disbelieving face at him and Klaus thought about flipping him off but settled for sticking his tongue out.

Diego apparently shared Ben's sentiments, though. He scoffed, but then his face softened. "Look, not that I'm complaining, because I'm proud you're getting sober, but . . . why now? End of the world and all that, thought you'd want to be popping every pill on the planet."

Klaus could see Allison glancing at him in the rearview mirror, a curious look on her face. She didn't know anything about his time-travel-tragic-love-story shit. He decided he didn't really mind her knowing, though. They'd drifted apart over the years, but they'd always been fairly close as kids. He sighed. "Oh, the thought did cross my mind, believe me, but there's something I need to do and the whole pesky thing doesn't seem to work unless I'm sober."

"Is this about conjuring the one you lost?" Diego asked, his voice understanding. "What was her name?" By the look on his face, Klaus figured he was thinking about the lady cop he'd been close to. It was strange to realize that Diego had just lost someone a few days ago, too.

"His name was Dave. We soldiered together in the A Shau Valley in the Mountain of the Crouching Beast." He could practically feel Ben's gaze boring into the side of his head but didn't turn to look. Ben knew more about what happened than the rest of his siblings, but he didn't know everything. Or much. He hadn't been there, in Vietnam. Klaus had felt off-balance, like half of him had been ripped away. Dave had helped, though.

"Well," Diego said after a moment-this probably all sounded really insane to them, but they all thought Klaus was crazy anyway, so nothing different there, "Dave must have been a very special person to put up with all your weird-ass shit."

Allison was smiling encouragingly at him in the rear view mirror. "What was he like?" she asked in a soft voice.

"He was kind, and strong, and vulnerable, and beautiful." He smiled, staring out the window. "Beautiful. And I was foolish enough to follow him all the way to the front line."

"You fought in the shit?"

"Oh yeah, baby."

"How'd they let you do that?"

"Let me? War couldn't take enough bodies." He leaned his head against the window, letting the cool glass distract him from the agony his body was in and the emotions he would really prefer to be high to deal with. "Including his."

Ben had an unreadable expression on his face when Klaus finally looked over at him. It was . . . concerned? Pensive? Distressed? Klaus was used to knowing exactly what Ben was thinking and he didn't like this expression he couldn't place. So he looked away. Allison's smile had turned sad, Diego had turned back to face the windshield.

"Look at us," Klaus said, "loggin' in some quality sibling time before the end of the world."

"It's not the end of the world," Allison said decisively. "We're going to stop it." She seemed much more confident about that than he felt. He leaned his head back against the seat. "We are," Allison insisted, and her voice was so persuasive, even without using her power, that Klaus almost believed her. "We're going to find Vanya and stop Harold Jenkins and prevent the apocalypse."

No one had much to say to that so Klaus let his eyes drift closed. This day _sucked_.

* * *

By the time they made it to the address in Jenkins' file, it was morning. Klaus had fallen asleep in the backseat a couple hours ago, but Diego had stayed awake, partially in solidarity with Allison, and partially because he was too worked up to sleep. He was tense as they pulled into the empty driveway.

"Hey, time to get up," he said quietly, reaching back to pat Klaus's leg.

"I'm up, I'm up," Klaus murmured, swatting at the air.

Good enough.

Allison was already out of the car and sneaking around the side of the house. Diego hurried to follow her. Together they crept up to a window and peered inside, vaguely aware of the sounds of Klaus somewhere behind them.

"That's Vanya's violin case," Allison whispered.

"So she's definitely been here. Maybe she's still in the house somewhere."

Allison shook her head. "There's no car. And there's no lights on. I don't think anyone's here."

Well, one way to find out, he supposed. He backed up a few steps and sized up the window. It was higher than was ideal, but he could make it.

Allison grabbed his arm. "Don't you dare."

"Hey guys," Klaus said, wandering up to them, "Ben says there's no one in the house."

"_What_?" Allison and Diego asked at the same time.

Klaus sighed like they were being ridiculous and repeated himself slowly. "Ben says there's no one in the house."

Diego exchanged a look with Allison. She seemed to be thinking the same thing he was. Klaus did seem better than he'd been yesterday, but maybe he was hallucinating? Or maybe he was telling the truth and actually talking to Ben, and Diego couldn't figure out which he'd prefer.

"How does he know?" Diego asked, willing to humor Klaus for the moment.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "He walked his ghostly ass right through the wall and looked around, duh."

"Maybe we should go inside and check anyway," Allison suggested, almost gently.

"Look, you can bust down the door and waste time looking around for someone who's not there, or you can trust me for once in our lives."

Something uncomfortably like guilt settled in Diego's stomach. He met Klaus's gaze and forced himself not to look away. "Okay. If they're not here, where else would they be?"

"Probably somewhere in town," Allison said, "since Vanya's violin is still here. She wouldn't leave that behind unless she was planning to come back soon."

There was a complicated emotion on Klaus's face that Diego didn't have time to decipher. He hoped it was positive. "Well, it shouldn't take too long to check out the town. It's pretty tiny."

Maybe someone should stay here in case Vanya and Harold came back. But who? Diego wasn't about to sit around when he could be actively looking for them, and one look at Allison's determined expression told him she felt the same. And he really didn't want to leave Klaus here alone if Harold might be coming back.

So that's how they all ended up back in the car, stuck in the most obnoxiously long traffic jam ever. They'd crept along agonizingly slowly and still hadn't made it to the town proper, currently sitting next to a restaurant that seemed to be the cause of the commotion.

Suddenly Allison grabbed her sunglasses and climbed out of the car.

"What are you doing?" Diego asked, opening his own door to follow her.

"Diego? Allison!" Klaus hissed, stumbling out of the car.

Allison ignored them both. She walked briskly over to a large sign and grabbed a scarf dangling from it. "Vanya," she said quietly. Before Diego could question her, Allison had headed off towards the police tape blocking off most of the parking lot.

"Oh goodie, cops," Klaus said from next to Diego. "I love cops."

"At least you're sober right now," Diego pointed out.

"Yeah, it totally sucks," Klaus said distantly, his gaze focused on empty air over where the police officers were milling about. Diego knew for a fact he couldn't be high right now, had been with him for hours at this point, but still he was concerned about Klaus zoning out. He couldn't have snuck any drugs when they weren't watching, could he? No, he was trying to be sober for Dave's sake. But whatever was going on, they'd have to address it later. Right now Allison was talking to a police officer over by the tape line.

"What happened?" Allison was asking as Diego walked over. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Klaus muttering to the air and moving off in the direction he'd been staring. That couldn't be good.

"We're trying to figure that out," the cop responded. "As soon as we do, you'll be able to read it in the newspaper with everyone else. So have a nice day."

Great. That was helpful. "Look, officer-" he began, his tone less than friendly.

"Holy shit!" the officer exclaimed, eyes still fixed on Allison. Diego followed his gaze to see that she had taken off her sunglasses. "You're Allison Hargreeves? I saw you on TV two nights ago in that Sandra Bullock movie about underpaid teachers that rob a bank."

Diego looked at Allison, hoping his expression communicated his _really? _adequately.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Oh, wow!" The cop chuckled. "If I'm being honest, my wife and I, we prefer you in the romantic comedies. The Love on Loan trilogy."

Seriously, dude? Diego felt like slamming his head against a wall. Of course they had to run into one of Allison's biggest fans. Over to the side of the parking lot, Diego saw Klaus chatting animatedly to the air. At least none of the police were confronting him about it yet.

"We can't get enough," the guy was continuing. His radio went off, and he turned slightly to answer it.

"Hospital called," the person on the other line said. "Perp from last night just regained consciousness."

"Copy. I'll be right over." He sighed and shook his head. "Allison freakin' Hargreeves. My wife's not gonna believe it."

"What happened last night?" Diego butted in, trying to steer the conversation in a useful direction. "You must know if you've got a perp."

The cop's expression turned significantly less friendly as he looked at Diego, and Diego could practically feel Allison's exasperation at his tactic. "That's not really any of your business. Like I said, you can read about it with everyone else. Now, I've got a job to do." He looked back at Allison. "If you'll excuse me, ma'am."

When he was out of earshot, Allison turned to Diego angrily. "That was handled nicely. I could have gotten something out of him."

"Yeah right. He wasn't gonna tell you anything but a review of your filmography."

Allison rolled her eyes and brandished the scarf at him. "Whatever happened here, I think Vanya was involved."

"Well maybe she's at the hospital, then."

"Uh, hey guys," Klaus said, suddenly at Diego's elbow. "Do either of you have a picture of Vanya?"

"Why?"

"Well," Klaus said, "I met some truly delightful ghosts over there where all the cops are-" Diego started to roll his eyes but stopped himself. Klaus was sober, so it was possible he really was seeing ghosts. Besides, he'd asked them to trust him earlier and Diego was still kind of guilty over the realization they'd never really taken him seriously. "-and they were telling me what happened last night. There was something I didn't really follow about some dude paying them to beat him up, which like, kinky, who am I to judge, but they said the dude's girlfriend was here and it sounded like it might be Vanya."

There was a pause as Diego and Allison digested that. "Yeah," Allison said eventually, pulling the dust jacket of Vanya's book from her pocket. "Here's one."

"Great!" Klaus chirped, grabbing the cover and walking a few steps away. Diego watched him supposedly interacting with the ghosts. He didn't seem comfortable, exactly, but he also didn't seem as scared as he'd always been when talking about ghosts in the past. It was just another development he'd have to address later. They were really piling up.

After a minute Klaus returned. "It was definitely Vanya they saw last night. They said some weird force slammed them, like, against the walls or something and that's how they died. And they think Vanya did it."

"Like . . . powers?" Allison asked. Diego understood the hesitance. No way Vanya-_Vanya_-could have powers.

"Yeah. Turns out sweet little Vanya has been holding out on us. Or the Harold dude has powers, which is probably worse. Or, you know, these ghost guys could be wrong and just trying to mess with me, which wouldn't be the first time, but I'd give them definite points for creativity on this one."

Well, there wasn't much to say to that. Or rather, there was, but it was another thing Diego was adding to the list for _later, definitely later_. He looked over at Allison. "Well, I guess we're going to the hospital, then."

* * *

Klaus _hated _hospitals. It wasn't even that he usually ended up in them from overdoses, which one would think would be the traumatic part. Nope, that was fine. They were just so _crowded_. With the dead, that is. The living didn't bother Klaus nearly as much.

The halls were teeming with ghosts in all variety of conditions. Some must have died relatively peacefully, but some were dripping blood, guts spilling, mangled limbs, etc. Nothing new, of course, but highly unpleasant. And the _noise_. It was deafening. Klaus tried to tune it out as much as he could, but all of them were chattering, or screaming, or otherwise making themselves as obnoxious as possible.

Of all the times to be sober.

"Come on," Ben encouraged, leaning close to Klaus's ear to be heard. "You can do this. It's for Vanya, just remember that." Right. For Vanya.

Klaus trailed after Allison and Diego, who were both walking with purpose straight through hordes of wailing ghosts. On instinct, Klaus swerved around the ghosts, weaving through the hallway in a way that was definitely making nurses eye him warily. But it wasn't his fault-he couldn't tell who was dead and who was alive, and slamming into a patient would probably look even worse. He had no desire to get thrown in a pysch ward today.

Diego and Allison had made their way over to the main desk, where they were talking to the nurse working there. Well, Allison was talking, which was a good decision, in Klaus's opinion, and Diego was not looking too pleased about it. Klaus had to stand pretty close to them to hear what they were saying over the noise of the ghosts.

"-looking for our sister. Is there a Vanya Hargreeves here?"

The nurse checked over some paperwork. "No. We don't have anyone here by that name. I'm sorry."

"We think she may have been involved in the attack last night," Diego said, leaning forward. The nurse glanced warily at his assortment of knives, but didn't comment on them. "Maybe she was brought in without ID."

The nurse shook her head. "No. There were two people brought in, but they were both men."

"Was one of them named Leonard Peabody?" Allison asked. "He's her boyfriend and we think they were together."

Another check of the paperwork. A ghost with a truly horrific gash across his chest was standing next to the nurse, shouting. "Yes, Leonard Peabody was here." She looked up, forehead wrinkling. "I do remember his girlfriend being here with him all night."

"That must be her! Is she still here?"

"No. Mr. Peabody checked himself out AMA this morning."

"Great," Diego muttered, turning away angrily.

Allison smiled tensely at the nurse. "Thank you for the help."

The siblings walked over to an unoccupied-by the living-corner of the waiting room. Ben perched on the arm of one of the chairs. "They must have been here while we were at the cabin earlier," Allison said. Klaus could barely hear her over the sobbing of the teenaged ghost sitting in the chair next to Ben.

"We need to go get her. Now."

"Great!" Klaus said. It was high time they left the hospital. "Let's go!"

The drive back to the cabin was tense. Not that Klaus had expected anything else. He pulled one knee close to his chest and chewed worriedly at his nail. Next to him, Ben was staring out the window moodily.

When they pulled up in the driveway, there was still no car, but lights were on in the house. "Let me do the talking," Allison ordered as she put the car in park. Diego didn't say anything, but Klaus nodded.

It became immediately apparent, though, when they stepped out of the car, that something was wrong. Or at least very, very weird. The trees were swaying erratically, and the very air seemed to be dancing to violin music. When they stepped onto the porch, all the lights were swinging wildly.

"Vanya?" Allison called. "Is that you?"

They all crept along the porch, Klaus eyeing the lights warily, until they reached the door. Allison opened it and Diego ushered Klaus in behind her, bringing up the rear himself, probably in case someone tried to attack from behind, or some equally noble and heroic reason, Klaus figured.

"Vanya, there you are," Allison said in relief. "What is going on?"

The music stopped and Klaus looked up. Vanya was standing in the middle of the room, violin still halfway to her chin, staring at the three of them. The chandelier was swinging like the lights outside, but less violently, as if it was no longer being buffeted about.

"What are you guys doing here?" Vanya asked. Her tone was somewhere between annoyed and disbelieving, and Klaus couldn't really blame her.

"We came to find you," Diego said, blatantly ignoring Allison's orders and moving forward to peer into the other rooms of the house. Probably checking for Harold.

Allison shot him an annoyed look before stepping towards Vanya. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Her eyes flicked between the three of them-since she couldn't see Ben also standing there.

Klaus, unlike Diego, was perfectly capable of listening to Allison. Well, this time, but only because it did seem like the best plan. So he stayed quiet.

"There's something . . . weird going on," Allison said, which summed it up quite nicely, if not as vividly as Klaus might have put it. "What's causing it?"

Klaus knew what Allison was thinking. What they were all thinking. Were the ghosts right, and Vanya really did have powers?

Vanya paused and seemed to gather herself. "Me."

Well, that answered that question. Klaus stepped forward, not really knowing what he was going to do or say, but Diego beat him to it, apparently having a harder time accepting all this. "What do you mean 'me'?"

"I mean," Vanya said, turning to him, "I made those things happen." She glanced at Allison and Klaus as well. "With my powers. Turns out I've had them all this time. It's weird, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty weird," Ben said. Klaus hissed at him.

"It's-it's incredible," Allison half-smiled at Vanya. Klaus even thought she might be being sincere, somewhere behind her shock and we're-all-probably-currently-in-danger wariness.

Vanya, it seemed, picked up on the second half of that. "But?"

"We don't have time for this," Diego muttered, striding back over to Vanya. He was apparently satisfied that Harold wasn't in the house.

"Can we do this in the car?" Allison asked.

"Why?"

"You're not gonna want to hear it."

Vanya shifted, almost shrugging. "Well, that's never stopped you before."

"She's got a point," Klaus muttered. He was proud of himself for staying quiet this long. Vanya glanced at him with what he might classify as the ghost of a smile-he cracked himself up sometimes-but Allison's gaze was much more frustrated.

"Leonard Peabody?" Diego said, ignoring Klaus. "His real name is Harold Jenkins."

Allison picked up the explanation next. "Remember when I couldn't find anything in the library on Leonard?" She went to a library? Wow, she was dedicated to this. Klaus didn't think he'd ever set foot in a library. "It's because Leonard Peabody doesn't exist. Harold Jenkins does. He was in prison for 12 years. He murdered his father when he was 13." Oh. Klaus hadn't known that. Harsh.

"This is insane." Vanya clearly didn't believe a word they were saying.

"Vanya, our whole lives are insane," Klaus said, reaching out. Hadn't Five said something like that yesterday? Five was the smart one, after all. It was meant to be comforting, but Vanya recoiled, so maybe it hadn't worked. "And so is this dude."

"Klaus is right," Diego said, which Klaus was definitely going to remember forever, thank-you-very-much. "We were in his house and he has pictures of us all with our eyes gouged out."

"We have the police report in the car," Allison added. "We can show you."

"I don't . . . I don't understand," Vanya said, clearly overwhelmed.

"We'll tell you everything in the car, but we have to go. It isn't safe."

"No, stop!" Vanya pulled away and sat down.

"Maybe we should give her a little space," Ben suggested. They'd all gotten closer to Vanya throughout the conversation, surrounding her. Klaus could see how that might be a bad idea. He grabbed Diego's arm and backed off a few steps while Allison crouched down in front of Vanya and tried to reason with her in a soft tone.

"Look, um. I can't imagine how hard this must be for you to hear this . . . how you must feel right now, but I . . . I love you, and I just wanna be here for you, as your sister." She glanced up at Diego and Klaus. "We all wanna be here for you."

Klaus nodded. "We love you." Diego sort of grunted in what sounded like agreement, which was basically a declaration of love from him as well. Emotions weren't his thing.

"There's just no way." Vanya sounded lost in a way that was so achingly familiar it broke Klaus's heart. "I love him. This doesn't make any sense. This just doesn't make any sense." She seemed on the verge of tears. "And this power . . . I don't know-I don't know what's going on. I don't know what to do."

"Hey," Klaus said, kneeling next to her and stroking her arm. "It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

"I understand now," Allison said, and what the hell was she talking about? They all looked at her, but she didn't seem to see them, lost in thought. "When we were four, Dad told us you were sick. You had to be isolated."

That did sound kind of familiar, now that she mentioned it. Klaus looked at Diego, standing awkwardly beside them, and could see dawning recognition on his face as well. It was fuzzy, but Klaus could almost remember Vanya disappearing for a while.

"We were so young, none of us knew to question it. But then he asked me to do something I never understood until now."

Four sets of eyes were glued to Allison's face. None of them knew what she was talking about.

Allison drew in a shaky breath. "He made me rumor you. To think you were just ordinary."

Klaus gasped. Behind him, Diego made a strangled noise and Ben whispered "shit."

"He made me an accomplice." And wasn't that just like dear old Dad? To fuck up all his kids at once, efficiently monstrous. He was always pitting them against each other, making them use their powers on each other, so was it any surprise he would do something so horrible and make Allison part of it?

Vanya, however, seemed to have focused on a different part of the story. "You did this to me?"

"I-I didn't realize."

"Vanya, Dad's the one at fault," Klaus tried to say, but Vanya cut him off.

"You knew this whole time?" She glanced around. "All of you? That I had powers?"

"No!"

"Of course we didn't!"

"No, I didn't really understand until I came today, until I saw it."

Vanya rose from her chair and they all backed up. She was angrier than Klaus had ever seen her-not, he thought, that he often saw her displaying much of any emotion. "Well now it all makes sense," she accused. "This is why none of you ever wanted me around."

"No! Vanya, that's not true," Klaus cried. He tried to step forward, but Diego held him back.

"You couldn't risk me threatening your place in the house! Your-your dominance!"

"That's not true!" Allison insisted, but Vanya didn't seem to hear her.

"You couldn't handle the fact that Dad might find _me _special!"

"You _are _special, Vanya," Allison yelled, exasperation clear in her tone, along with desperation that Klaus though was well earned. "With or without powers!"

"Don't-don't say that!"

"Please, Vanya," Klaus begged. "We can start over. We've all been shitty siblings to each other, but we can fix it!"

"You destroyed my life!"

Wind started whirling inside the cabin. The chandelier swung wildly, papers flapped loudly, and Vanya stood in the middle of it all, staring at the three of them with such hate Klaus couldn't believe it was the same Vanya he'd grown up with.

"Tell me you aren't threatened by me now," she said, chillingly calm all of a sudden, the eye of her own private hurricane.

"Vanya, please stop!" Diego said, finally joining the conversation. "We're trying to help you!"

"I don't need your help!"

"Vanya, we love you." Allison's voice broke.

Glass started shattering as light bulbs burst. Allison and Diego backed away, but Klaus didn't move.

"Vanya, are you okay?" he asked.

"Klaus, I think maybe you should get back," Ben cautioned, but Klaus could barely hear him over the wind.

"Harold is the real enemy here," Klaus said, taking a tiny step forward. "And Dad. But we can help you."

"I don't need your help!" she screamed. "Don't come near me!"

"Klaus, stop!" Diego cried, but Klaus ignored him.

"Please, Vanya," he said instead. "We just want to help you." Maybe if he could just get to her, maybe he could help her, calm her down, show her that they really did love her, however shit they had been at showing it in the past.

He bolted forward, trying to get to her through the wind threatening to blow him away, and that proved to be his fatal mistake. Vanya lashed out. A huge pulse of energy slammed into Klaus's chest, stealing his breath and sending him flying backwards. His head hit the wall with a sickening crack and everything went black.

* * *

Klaus was dead. Klaus was dead and Diego was freaking out.

He'd watched as if in slow motion as Vanya had sent Klaus slamming into the wall. He slid down it, body limp like a ragdoll, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Everything was still for a few moments, Vanya's hurricane dying down. They were all frozen.

Then Diego's brain had caught up with the situation and he'd surged forward. He gathered Klaus's head into his lap, shoving his fingers against his neck to check for a pulse. Nothing.

Vanya was there, sobbing hysterically, "Klaus? Klaus!" and "I'm sorry" over and over. Allison collapsed to her knees beside them as well, grabbing Klaus's wrist and finding the same stillness Diego had.

"He's d-d-dead," Diego whispered numbly. Vanya sobbed harder. Diego felt a tear roll down his own face. Suddenly it was like he was back in that motel room holding Patch's lifeless body. But now it was his brother, _his little brother_, who he'd failed for so long. He squeezed his eyes shut and felt more tears fall. _No. _He couldn't lose anyone else this week.

"I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! Klaus, I'm sorry!" Vanya wailed. Allison wrapped an arm around her, letting Vanya sob into her shoulder.

Diego wanted to be mad at her, but it was so obvious she really hadn't meant to harm Klaus that he couldn't quite manage it. He felt almost numb.

"We could take him back to the Academy," he suggested instead. "Maybe Mom could save him." It was a stupid hope and he knew it, but he wanted to believe so badly he could do something.

"It's too late," Allison said gently, her own voice thick with tears. "He's gone."

Suddenly, Klaus shot up, nearly hitting Diego with his head. "No, no, no, no, no," he muttered, hands shaking.

"Klaus?" Vanya asked, voice small. She lunged forward, hugging him fiercely. Allison followed.

"What the fuck?" Diego said. He felt like the whole world had tilted sideways. Klaus had died. He had been dead. And yet there he was, sitting up, hugging Vanya. How?

And then he decided he didn't really care at the moment and grabbed onto Klaus as well.

The four of them just sat there for a few minutes, huddled together on the floor clutching at Klaus and each other and pretending they weren't all crying.

Allison was the first to gather herself. "We need to go. Harold could come back any minute."

"Vanya," Klaus said gently. "Vanya, we do need to go. Will you come with us? Please."

"Yeah," she said, not quite letting go of Klaus even as the others pulled back some. "I'm sorry, Klaus. I didn't mean to. I-I love you. I love all of you. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I know," Klaus said, putting a hand on her cheek. "I'm okay now. We can help you with your powers."

"We love you too, Vanya," Allison added, getting to her feet and reaching out to help Vanya up as well.

"Yeah," Diego said. There had been way too much emotion today. He hauled Klaus-gently-to his feet and started moving towards the door. "And this is really touching, but we can continue it in the car."

"Aw, I know you care about us too, you big softie," Klaus cooed. Diego would neither confirm nor deny that.

They made it to the car without too much fuss, only stopping for Vanya to pack up her violin and bring it with her. She also insisted on sitting with Klaus in the backseat, apparently needing the confirmation he was really alive and she hadn't killed him. Well, not permanently.

It was a long drive back. They stopped halfway to let Allison and Diego switch places so Allison could have a break from driving. Diego's arm was healed enough to drive. It wasn't comfortable or anything, but he was fine.

By the time they finally pulled up to the Academy, they were all exhausted. They clambered out of the car and trooped inside. Luther and Five were nowhere to be seen, but since it was so late, Diego figured they must be asleep.

"Allison, go get Mom. I want her to check that Klaus is okay."

"I'm fine," Klaus insisted. Vanya glanced at him guiltily.

"Of course you are," Diego said, dragging Klaus to the infirmary. Vanya trailed after them while Allison headed off to find Mom. A few minutes later Diego had forced Klaus onto the table in the infirmary and Mom was fussing over him.

"Well you don't seem to have a concussion," Mom said, checking Klaus's eyes and running her hands gently through his hair at the back of his head. "And there doesn't seem to be any contusions on the skull."

"See, Diego, I'm fine."

"You look exhausted, though, honey, why don't you get some sleep?" She looked around at all of them. "You should all get some sleep."

"Mom's right," Allison said. "We can have a family meeting in the morning, but right now I haven't slept in two days."

Sleep did sound wonderful right about now. They all agreed and headed off, Vanya claiming one of the empty bedrooms to crash in. Diego hesitated before going into his own room, though, watching Klaus.

"Hey, Diego," Klaus said, smiling thinly. "I'm really fine. I'm not gonna disappear overnight."

"Yeah, whatever," Diego shrugged, opening his door. But before he could talk himself out of it, he turned and pulled Klaus into a fierce hug. "Don't you fucking dare d-die again."

Klaus hugged back. "I won't."

* * *

They gathered in the kitchen bright and early the next morning. Mom stood at the stove making eggs while Five devoured cup after cup of coffee. There were a few ghosts standing around the edges of the room, shouting at Klaus, but they were the same ones that had always been there in the kitchen and Klaus could almost completely ignore them at this point. He made sure to pull out a seat for Ben, giving him a cup of coffee as well, and no one bothered to question him.

"So . . . Vanya has powers?" Luther asked slowly, after they had finished explaining the events of the past couple of days. He wasn't quite glaring, but Klaus could see a very judgy wariness there. His own throat suddenly ached.

"Where is Harold Jenkins now?" Five interrupted, staring intently at them over his third mug of coffee. It looked kind of funny paired with his child-sized Academy pajamas.

Allison glanced at Vanya before answering. "We don't know."

"Well that's kind of important, given he's the one supposed to cause the apocalypse."

"I have something to add!" Klaus interrupted, raising his hand.

"This is a bad idea," Ben muttered as everyone turned to look at Klaus.

"Yeah." He knew that, thanks Ben. But it was important. Probably. He stood, figuring he might as well put on a full performance. "So I talked to Dad last night."

"_What_?" everyone asked.

"Klaus, be serious for once," Luther sneered.  
"I am! I'm being completely serious here! While I was dead last night-"

"Excuse me, what?" Five demanded, and oh yeah, they hadn't mentioned that part. Oh well.

"-I met dear old Daddy in the afterlife. He's still a dick, by the way. He gave me the normal lecture about my appearance and how I'm his greatest failure-the usual stuff-yada yada yada. No surprise there. Not even the afterlife could soften a hardass like Dad, right?" No one else seemed to appreciate his humor. Vanya was watching him with something close to devastation on her face and that really wasn't the reaction he was going for.

"But he did mention something about his murder, or lack thereof, because-"

"Wait for it," Ben said dramatically, despite no one but Klaus being able to hear him.

"-he killed himself." Klaus finished with what he thought was an appropriately dramatic and mournful expression, just because he could.

There was silence for a moment before several people scoffed. "We don't have time for your games, Klaus," Luther said. Allison and Vanya looked torn, Five speculative, and Diego was hard to read but seemed willing to listen. Mom, still standing at the stove, had paused, her shoulders tense.

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Why would he do that?" Vanya asked. Had her voice always sounded so small? Klaus had been noticing it a lot the past couple days. But that probably wasn't the most important thing at the moment.

"He said it was the only way to get us all home again."

Luther was shaking his head. "Dad wouldn't just kill himself."

Five took another sip of coffee. "You said it yourself, he was depressed. Holed up in his office and room all day and night."

"No!" Luther insisted, standing up and leaning across the table towards Klaus. Out of the corner of his eye, Klaus saw Diego rise as well, stepping forward as if to intervene. It was a sweet thought, that his siblings might care enough to stop Luther's rage. Ben was glaring at Luther as well. "There weren't any signs. Suicidal people exhibit certain tendencies, strange behaviors."

"Like sending people to the moon for no reason?" Diego asked challengingly, his body positioned half in front of Klaus as if expecting Luther to strangle him again. There was a sharp inhale of breath that sounded like Allison.

"I swear to God, Klaus, if you're lying." Klaus was very grateful that Diego was standing so close. He was fairly certain that Luther wouldn't attack him while sober, but he had recently died and wasn't keen to do it again so soon. Especially not if God was gonna just kick him out again, that little bitch.

"I swear I'm not!"

"Breakfast's ready!" Mom announced cheerfully. She set plates of eggs and bacon in front of them all, but no one moved, engaged in a tense stand-off of sorts.

"Master Klaus is correct," Pogo announced, and Jesus, Klaus hadn't even noticed him coming into the room. "Regretfully. I helped Master Hargreeves enact his plan." Pogo sighed deeply. "So did Grace. It was a difficult choice for both of us. More difficult than you could ever know."

Luther seemed to deflate, collapsing back into his chair. Diego grabbed Mom's arm gently, looking at her with concern. She smiled sadly at him.

"Prior to your father's death," Pogo continued, "Grace's programming was adjusted so she was unable to administer first aid on that fateful night.

"Sick bastard," Five muttered.

"So the security tape we saw?" Allison asked.

"It was meant to further the murder mystery." Damn, Klaus thought, Reggie really was fucked up. Couldn't do things the easy way at all. "Your father hoped that being back here, solving it together would reignite your desire to be a team again."

"Clearly he didn't know us very well," Diego scoffed.

"Why?" Vanay asked.

"To save the world, of course."

"First the moon mission and now this," Luther accused, his voice rising. "You watched me search for answers and said nothing! The one person in this family we trusted and you've been lying to us! Any other damn secrets you want to share?"

"Hey, Luther, calm down buddy," Klaus said, but it was useless.

"Yes, actually," Pogo said, still infuriatingly calm. "It's time for the last of your father's secrets to come to light." He looked over at Vanya, whose eyes widened. He moved his gaze to Klaus and Diego, who were still standing. "Perhaps you should all sit down for this."

So they did. And they listened as Pogo described how Dad had been afraid of Vanya and her powers, which were out of control. How he had locked her up and medicated her, made Allison rumor her and steered all the others into excluding her. With every word Klaus felt his heart ache. The story was so familiar. His mind kept wandering back to the mausoleum, and he had to force himself not to whimper.

"Holy shit," Five breathed once the explanation was over. Vanya was crying silently, as was Allison.

"How could you?" Vanya choked out.

"I had no choice."

Klaus flinched as wind started up in the kitchen, eerily reminiscent of the scene at the cabin. Allison wrapped her arm around Vanya and turned to Pogo. "Maybe you should go." The lights were swinging. Pogo bowed his head and left.

"Hey, Vanya, it's okay. You're okay now," Allison said gently.

Luther was eyeing Vanya warily, his gaze shifting about to the lights and wind. He didn't seem keen on how close Allison was standing to Vanya and the eye of the storm. "Dad must have had a reason, though. Maybe we should try the chamber or pills again until she can control it."

"No!"

"What the fuck, Luther?"

"Absolutely not!"

"I'm just saying," Luther started, but Klaus cut him off, standing up and leaning forward, hands on the table.

"No. No one is locking Vanya up ever again." The mausoleum flashed in his mind again and the ghosts seemed to get louder. "And no one is forcing her to take any medication she doesn't want to. Dad was a sadistic, abusive bastard, and he was _wrong_."

"Yeah," Diego agreed. "Vanya is our sister. We need to help her, not lock her up."

"Besides," Klaus pointed out, "Vanya is the one who gets to decide what she does next." He turned to Vanya. "Do you want to start taking your meds again?"

She shook her head and the wind got just a bit stronger. "There. See? No more meds for Vanya."

"You need to be trained," Five said, calmer than the rest of them by far. "I think I'd be the best person to help. You're only out of control because you never learned how to control it in the first place."

"I still think-" Luther tried, but six voices cut him off, although he could only hear five.

"No!"

Luther huffed, storming out of the kitchen. It was like he took a lot of the tension with him. Vanya's powers petered out, and the atmosphere began to calm. Five was talking to Vanya,but Klaus wasn't listening. He felt a phantom itch all over his body. Everything was just too much. He dropped back into his chair, suddenly exhausted. The ghosts on the edges of the room were deafening.

He must have zoned out for a few minutes, because he totally missed Allison, Five, and Vanya leaving the room, presumably going somewhere to start training her. Diego was talking quietly to Mom, who had replaced his now cold eggs with smiley face pancakes. Ben was watching Klaus warily.

Klaus stood up from the table and moved towards the stairs.

"You okay, bro?" Diego asked.

"Yeah," Klaus waved him off. "I'm fine."

Diego didn't seem to believe him, but also didn't follow him. Maybe he had faith in Klaus. Hah, joke's on him, Klaus thought, heading towards his room. He still had some drugs stashed somewhere.

* * *

They didn't end up doing much training once they left the kitchen. Five had asked Vanya to describe everything she knew about her powers, listening intently as she talked. "Well, it definitely sounds like it's connected to both sound and your emotions. I'll have to look around Dad's office to see if I can find any of his notes. In the meantime, I think you should stay here. I think all of us should."

Allison almost protested-she needed to get back to her daughter-but she knew Five was right. They still didn't know what was happening with the apocalypse. It was supposed to happen today, but they didn't even know where Harold Jenkins was. And besides, Vanya needed support.

"I don't want to hurt any of you again," Vanya said. Allison saw Klaus's body slamming into the wall, the trail of blood he left behind. The crack of his skull. She shook her head.

"You won't," Five dismissed. "We can help you. I know we all hate it here, but it's best if we stay together."

Vanya nodded reluctantly. "My concert's tonight," she said finally. I . . . I'd like it if you guys could come."

"Of course we will!" Allison said, smiling.

Vanya smiled back shyly. "I need to go back to my apartment to get ready later."

"Why don't you go now?" Five suggested. "You can just get your stuff and get ready here. I'll go look around the old man's office for anything I can find."

So that's how Allison found herself back at Vanya's apartment. With Harold still out there, she thought it best not to let Vanya go alone. And her instinct proved correct when they walked in the door to see Harold sitting at Vanya's table waiting. His bag was at his feet, and he had a white patch over his eye. Served him right, Allison thought savagely.

She moved forwards immediately as Harold rose from the chair. Before he could say a word, Allison punched him, right on the injured eye socket. He howled and fell, knocking over his bag, which slid across the floor, contents spilling out.

"Allison, stop!" Vanya called. Allison huffed but obeyed, standing over Harold but making no move to hit him again. He was clutching his face in pain. Good. She hoped it really fucking hurt.

"What are you doing here, Leonard?" Vanya asked, voice uncertain. Despite what her siblings had told her, she clearly didn't quite believe them about how Harold was using her.

"I'm here for you, Vanya! You disappeared. I was worried something happened to you, that your siblings had done something to you."

"Why would my siblings do anything to me?"

Allison thought that was quite a change from how she'd been acting yesterday, but decided that was good and she was never going to point it out.

Harold started to reply, but Allison wasn't listening, her attention caught instead by Vanya, who was bending down to pick up something from the floor. It was a red notebook that had spilled out of Harold's bag. The cover, as Vanya opened it, was emblazoned with a golden R.H.

_Reginald Hargreeves_.

The book stirred something in Allison's memories, and she realized she'd seen Dad writing in it when they were kids, taking notes on their training and developing powers.

Vanya flipped through the pages and then stopped. "It's about me," she breathed out. "Notes about my powers." She looked up, staring at Howard, who was silent now, struggling to his feet. "Why do you have this?"

"I can explain, Vanya. I-"

"You've been manipulating me all this time?" It was what Allison had been trying to convince Vanya of all week, but, hearing the pain in Vanya's voice, she didn't feel triumphant. She wished she could have spared her sister all of this.

"No, that's not true. I'm only trying to protect you!"

"From who?"

"From your family!" Harold cried, gesturing at Allison. "They're the ones trying to hurt you! Vanya, it's all there, in that journal. Your father was afraid of you. That's why he-"

"I know," Vanya cut him off. "I know all of that. But why do you have this journal?"

Harold ignored her, and Allison fought the urge to hit him again. This was Vanya's fight. She needed to confront him herself. "Your brothers and your sister, they went along with him every step of the way! I embraced you. I'm the only one who accepts you for who you are!"

Yeah, Allison was going to kill him. And then make sure Vanya knew that wasn't true.

"Who is Harold Jenkins?"

"He's someone like us," Harold said, sighing. "A lonely boy. An outsider whose family was cruel to him. All he ever wanted was to be heard, to be loved." He wasn't denying anything. He knew that Vanya knew he was a murderer and he wasn't denying it. Allison felt sick. 'An outsider whose family was cruel'? Was that how Vanya felt?

"Allison was right about you," Vanya said, pulling Allison out of her thoughts. "You're sick." Allison reached out to put a reassuring hand on Vanya's arm. "You need to leave," Vanya told Harold, her voice stronger than Allison was expecting.

"What have they ever done for you? What has she done for you other than ignore and belittle you?" He gestured to Allison. "I'm the reason you got first chair!"

Allison felt a sinking feeling in her gut. "I auditioned," Vanya said defensively. "I earned the spot."

"You think the first chair went missing all by herself?"

"You're a monster," Allison whispered, horrified.

"I did this for you!" He moved forward and Allison positioned herself in front of Vanya.

"Stay away from me!"

"Your family doesn't care about you! They're the ones who are using you. They want you to feel small, but next to them you are a god! You just needed your eyes opened to see that, and I gave that to you. You need me."

"No! What I need is my family. They love me! And I love them!"

Allison felt a surge of love and she squeezed Vanya's arm reassuringly. But then Harold sighed and the air seemed to go cold.

"Your father was right. You're weak. He knew it, and now I know it."

"You bastard," Allison seethed, stepping forward. But Vanya latched onto her hand, squeezing it desperately.

Harold started slapping his hand against his leg rhythmically. Allison felt Vanya flinch. "You're weak! Pathetic!"

"Stop it," Vanya whimpered. The now familiar wind picked up, everything in the apartment rattling.

"Don't listen to him, Vanya. You're not weak."

"You're nothing! You're just ordinary! Less than ordinary!"

Glass was shattering, objects rising into the air. Knives, random kitchen utensils, pencils.

"Stop it!"

"Vanya, Vanya, listen to me! Please, calm down!"

"Ordinary, ordinary, ordinary!"

Vanya screamed, her eyes turned white, and all the swirling objects slammed into Harold's chest. He shuddered for a moment and then fell to the ground, dead.

Everything went still. Vanya sucked in a gasping breath, nearly hyperventilating.

Allison jumped into action. She grabbed Vanya's arms and leaned down to meet her gaze. "Vanya, are you okay?" Vanya nodded jerkily. "Okay. Go to your bedroom and get everything you need. I'll deal with this."

Vanya hesitated, staring at Harold's lifeless body, but then agreed. Allison watch her move into the bedroom and close the door. Hopefully she would be able to compose herself. But at the moment they had more pressing problems. Allison grabbed the phone and dialled the Academy. It was Luther who answered, but Allison cut off his greeting.

"Hey, I need you and Diego to get to Vanya's apartment right now. Harold showed up and shit went down. We need to get rid of the body."

She didn't even wait for a reply before hanging up. Someone was knocking on the door.

"Vanya dear, are you okay? I heard a noise."

Neighbors. Great.

Allison opened the door, smiling. There was an old lady there, hand raised to continue knocking. "Oh, who are you? Is Vanya alright?"

She took a deep breath. She had told herself she wouldn't use her powers anymore, but desperate times and all that.

"I heard a rumor that you forgot everything you saw and heard in the past fifteen minutes." She paused, letting the rumor sink in as the old lady's eyes flashed white. It was like an instant power rush and Allison tried not to shudder. "I heard a rumor that you went back to your apartment and thought everything was fine."

Without a word, the old lady turned and went back into her own apartment. Allison shut the door and leaned against it, sighing. One thing dealt with.

It didn't take long for Luther and Diego to arrive, with Five in tow. Allison spent that time finding a spare sheet to wrap Harold's body in and cleaning up the blood that had pooled under him.

"What happened?" Luther asked worriedly as soon as they walked through the door.

"Where's Vanya?" Five asked at the same time.

"Vanya is in her room, calming down and packing her stuff," Allison explained. She'd checked on her a few minutes ago and she'd seemed as okay as could be hoped for in the situation. "Harold was waiting for us when we got here. He tried to manipulate Vanya again and she killed him. Trust me, he deserved it."

Five walked over and pulled the sheet away from Harold's face. He ignored the gore, peeling off the eye patch instead.

"What are you doing?" Diego asked.

He ignored the question, pulling a glass eyeball out of his pocket and popping it in the eye socket.

"That's so gross," Allison said.

"Same eye color, same pupil size," Five mused. "Guys, this is it. The eye I've been carrying around for decades, it's found its rightful home."

Wow, Allison thought, this whole family really was messed up.

"That means we stopped the apocalypse, right?" Diego asked.

"It can't be this easy," Five muttered.

"Guys, we can debate this later. Right now, I need you three to get rid of the body. I'll take Vanya back to the Academy. Just deal with this, okay?"

She left them in the living room and went to Vanya's bedroom. Vanya was standing by her bed, carefully folding clothing into a bag. It looked like she was prepared to stay at the Academy for a while. Allison didn't blame her, after what happened in the apartment. "Hey," she said gently to get Vanya's attention. "Let's go home."

* * *

Klaus was glad that they were going to Vanya's concert for several reasons.

First of all, it gave him a chance to show off his absolutely fabulous sense of style to the world. He looked resplendent-if he did say so himself-in heeled boots, his fur trimmed coat, fashionable scarf, and a dress he had stolen from Allison's closet. It looked better on him, anyway. Most things did.

Second, it was a good bonding opportunity for all of them. Yes, even Luther, who, while no less wary of Vanya after having to dispose of the body of a man she'd killed, had grudgingly agreed to give training Vanya a chance. Klaus suspected Allison had a large part in convincing him. Klaus loved his siblings-even though they were idiots who offered assassins margaritas and/or tried to solve all their emotional issues with violence-and he was glad they were all making an effort to include Vanya and do better in general.

Third, it seemed that they had managed to avoid the apocalypse and it seemed like as good a way as any to celebrate. (Well, as good a way as any that didn't involve drugs or alcohol or any of the other fun things in life.)

Fourth, and finally, it was a nice distraction from Klaus freaking out about his own new powers. After Ben had punched him in the face earlier, he'd spent the rest of the day alternating between lowkey panicking and desperately trying to make Ben corporeal again. Neither strategy had been particularly productive, and Five accusing him of not staying sober-which was _not_ true-hadn't helped his mood.

So all in all, he was pretty pleased to go to the concert.

Luther and Diego looked hilariously uncomfortable and out of place as they sat in the front row of the theater, in the seats Vanya had reserved for them. At least they had managed to convince Diego to leave his BDSM-esque knife harness at home. Klaus had no doubt Diego had at least ten knives on his person anyway, but they were out of sight, and therefore not getting them all kicked out of the theater or stared at disapprovingly by the general public. (Well, Klaus was still getting a few disapproving looks, but he was pretty used to that. Some people had no taste.) Vanya had even, without more than a brief scrunching of her forehead, agreed to reserve a seat for Ben as well. Ben was pretty pleased, leaning forward eagerly to watch Vanya play.

Klaus had to admit that she was very good. He didn't know much about this kind of music-not the kind of bops he normally listened to-but it sounded nice. He remembered when they were kids and sometimes he would sit against his bedroom wall, listening to Vanya play her violin when the ghosts got too loud. It had always calmed him down. Maybe he should have told her that. Should have complimented her, gone to her room and asked to listen.

But it was too late to change the past.

Vanya had just started her solo when the first signs that something was wrong appeared. There was what sounded like a commotion out in the lobby, and people near the back started murmuring. The Hargreeves glanced at each other. Despite the fact they had probably prevented the apocalypse, they were all on edge.

And then it all went to shit.

Gunshots rang out and people started screaming. Vanya kept playing though, and a glance at the stage showed that her eyes were glowing white. Aw, shit. Something must have triggered her powers, whether it was the music or the gunshots. It was like she was in her own little bubble and didn't even notice the commotion.

"Everyone get out!" Diego yelled, motioning people to the exits even as he threw several knives in rapid succession. They nailed the gunmen in the neck, dropping them. He saw something off to the side of the theater and ran towards it, but Klaus couldn't see what it was.

Klaus dropped down behind the seats, fighting against the flashes of Vietnam his brain was trying to slip into. He heard Five yell and peeked around the seat to see him jump on one of the gunmen's back and turn him to take out two others. Allison, meanwhile, was sprinting up to the stage, talking to Vanya in an attempt to snap her out of whatever trance she was in.

Suddenly the temperature seemed to drop, and the hall glowed blue. Klaus looked down to see that the glow was coming from him. More specifically, from his hands, which he'd clenched into fists without noticing, and were, in case he hadn't mentioned, _glowing_. Huh, that was new.

Moving on instinct, Klaus stood, hands still glowing. Ben stood as well, and huh, he was glowing too. He started looking less and less like Klaus usually saw him and more and more transparent and stereotypically ghostly.

"Ben?" he heard Luther ask, stunned. Oh, the others could see Ben too. That was also new.

Klaus smirked at Ben. "It's go time, mofo."

Ben held out his own fists, mimicking Klaus's pose, and unleashed the Horror. Tentacles whipped about, grabbing the remaining gunmen and dashing them to pieces against the walls, tearing them in half, destroying them. It was bloody and gross, and holy shit, Klaus had done it! He'd made Ben corporeal!

Some distant part of his brain registered that Vanya's violin music had stopped. Probably good.

When the last of the gunmen were dead, Ben let the tentacles retract, and slowly the blue glow faded. Klaus felt exhausted, like he'd run for miles, or some other shit.  
"That was Ben," Luther said, somewhat stupidly, in Klaus's opinion.

"Well duh," Klaus responded, laughing despite being out of breath.

"Is he still here?" Diego asked, standing by the wings of the stage and staring at the space Ben was standing. Well, slightly to his left, but he was close. There was longing in his voice and Klaus realized in a way he hadn't really before that to his siblings, Ben was really gone. They didn't get to see him everywhere like Klaus did. Well, maybe he could change that now.

"Ben's always here. He's a stubborn asshole like that," Klaus said, blowing a kiss at Ben. Ben rolled his eyes but couldn't keep the smile off his face.

"Are you okay, Vanya?" Allison asked, bringing all their attention back to their sisters, standing on the stage. The white had faded from Vanya's eyes, and she was trembling in Allison's arms.

"Yeah. I just, I almost lost control again. I didn't want to stop playing. It was like I couldn't stop."

"But you did," Allison reassured her, smiling gently. "The sound of the gunshots probably triggered your powers."

"Which was what they were hoping for," Five said, kneeling next to the one of the fallen gunmen, checking something about their gear. "They're from the Commission. If I had to guess, they were trying to trigger you into causing the apocalypse with your powers."

The color drained from Vanya's face. "You mean _I _caused the apocalypse?"

"No. I mean you might have. But you didn't." He stood. "And you won't."

They were all silent for a moment, standing together in the middle of a shot-out theater, corpses littered all around them.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," Klaus said finally, "but I'm hungry."

Which is how they all ended up smooshed into a booth at Griddy's, several boxes of donuts spread out in front of them. Apparently it was under new management, but the nostalgia was still there. It was comforting.

"It's after midnight," Five said at one point. "And the world didn't end."

"We did it," Luther agreed. They all took a moment to process that. They'd actually done it. They'd prevented the apocalypse.

"Well cheers to that," Klaus said, holding up a donut.

The others rolled their eyes but obliged, tapping their donuts together in the middle of the table. They hadn't fixed everything, and they still had a hell of a long way to go to sort out all their baggage and issues, but they'd made a start. They were trying to be a family, and for the first time, basking in the warmth of his siblings and his lukewarm coffee, Klaus felt hopeful for their future.


End file.
